Miriam T. Stark

Ceramic Technology and Social Boundaries: Cultural Practices in Kalinga Clay Selection and Use

This study examines cultural sources of variation in ceramic compositional patterning in two pottery-making villages of the highland Philippines. In Dalupa, many potters are part-time specialists whereas in Dangtalan, women make pottery less frequently. Previous studies show that both pottery form and decoration correspond well with Kalinga social boundaries, but how do morphological and decorative patterning relate to compositional variability? Although researchers have made substantial advances in our understanding of natural and postdepositional sources of compositional variability, little is known about behavioral factors that affect chemical and mineralogical compositional patterning. This study examines cultural practices of clay selection and use in an ethnographic setting, and undertakes technical analyses to assess the relationship between behavior and material culture patterning. Our study identified paste differences between the clays and fired ceramics from Dangtalan and those from Dalupa. Findings from our compositional research thus parallel earlier morphological and stylistic studies, and illustrate multivariate differences in ceramics from these two Kalinga communities. This ethnoarchaeological and analytical project contributes, therefore, to understanding objective parameters within a behavioral context. It also provides an example of how a combined characterization approach, using chemical and petrographic techniques, can yield insights on intraregional variation at a finer scale of resolution than is often attempted.

Current Issues in Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology

The last decade has seen a surge in ceramic ethnoarchaeological studies worldwide, covering such important topics as ceramic production, technological change, ceramic use and distribution, and social boundaries. Some of the most exciting new Americanist research helps archaeologists refine models of ceramic production. Increasing numbers of non-Americanist studies use a technology and culture framework to examine manufacturing variability, the dynamics of cultural transmission between generations, and the articulation between ceramic technology and social boundaries. This review summarizes these recent trends, places current ethnoarchaeological research in its theoretical contexts, and looks to the future of research in a dynamic landscape in which ceramic production systems are undergoing rapid change. Many varieties of research currently now fall under the rubric of ceramic ethnoarchaeology, and Americanist archaeologist are encouraged to look beyond their own regionalist and theoretical paradigms to consult this wider literature.

Ceramic production and community specialization: a Kalinga ethnoarchaeological study

Abstract Ceramic production and exchange have become important issues in archaeological research on specialization and state formation. As one form of craft specialization, intensified ceramic production constitutes a common alternative to farming in societies faced with land shortages. Ceramic specialization is commonly practised at the community level, but little is known about the conditions under which village‐level specialization develops. Ethnoarchaeological research in the northern Philippines documents specialized ceramic production at the community‐level and embeds ceramic production into a regional system of community‐based productive specialization. This Kalinga study provides insights on the process of emergent ceramic specialization.

Luminescence dating of anthropogenically reset canal sediments from Angkor Borei, Mekong Delta, Cambodia

This paper presents a case study in the analysis of anthropogenically reset sedimentary materials, through work undertaken to identify and date sediments in an ancient canal in the Mekong Delta, Cambodia. The emergence of rice cultivating communities, utilising canals for both hydraulic management and transport, represents an important stage in the social evolution of southeast Asia. The emergence of complex polities in the region, which may have depended on both international trade and intensified agriculture, led ultimately to the formation of the famous Khmer empires which dominated the region on several occasions through the 1st and 2nd millennia AD. French colonial scholars identified possibly ancient canals in the region that may have played roles in trade, agriculture, or both. This series of ancient canal features near Angkor Borei has been the subject of recent investigations in a collaboration between the Universities of Glasgow and Hawaii. Luminescence profiling measurements were used to identify the canal bed, by exploiting the contrast between a regional substrate of some 50 ka depositional age and more recent archaeological sediments. In this manner it has been possible to identify the sedimentary substrate, undisturbed canal sediments, and redeposited material. Ages have been estimated for substrate and canal infill sediments. The work represents the first convincing demonstration of luminescence dating of one of these important regional features, and indeed the first confirmation of the presumed antiquity of the canal system around Angkor Borei.

Ceramics, kinship, and space: A Kalinga example

Abstract Kalinga household pottery inventory data are used to evaluate relationships between social and spatial relations. Two objectives guide the research discussed in this paper: (1) to examine assemblage variability in pottery-producing and pottery-consuming villages; and (2) to explore differences in ceramic patterning between households in two pottery-consuming villages. These disparities reflect separate sets of social relations that each pottery-consuming village has with the two pottery-producing villages. We discuss archaeological implications of our distributional analysis in our concluding comments.

From sibling to suki: Social relations and spatial proximity in Kalinga pottery exchange

Abstract This study illustrates how social relations—rather than simple proximity—influence spatial patterning in the distribution of contemporary Dalupa ceramics. The Kalinga pottery exchange network participates in a multi-centric economy, characterized by slightly overlapping exchange networks marked by different exchange mechanisms and goods. Thesuki relationship, a trade partnership that bridges social and ethnic boundaries, provides one vantage point for examining differences between two economic networks that operate within a single system of ceramic distribution.

The Transition to History in the Mekong Delta: A View from Cambodia

This article discusses methodological issues associated with the use of documentary and archaeological data to interpret the early historic period of southern Cambodia. Developments in the Lower Mekong region are used as a case study, and where the polity of “Funan” reputedly flourished from the second to the sixth centuries A.D. A variety of data sources available to us now—Chinese historical accounts, inscriptions, local oral traditions, and archaeological materials—suggests that this early historic polity was a unique mixture of ritual, economic, and political activity. Discussion concentrates on the site of Angkor Borei (Takeo Province, Cambodia), where the Lower Mekong Archaeological Project (LOMAP) has undertaken research since 1995.

Ceramic Distribution and Exchange: Jeddito Yellow Ware and Implications for Social Complexity

AbstractThe scale of late prehistoric sociopolitical complexity on the Colorado Plateau has been widely debated in the American Southwest. Proponents of an alliance model use Jeddito Yellow Ware, manufactured at Hopi Mesa villages, as one of four index wares. This distributional study of Jeddito Yellow Ware challenges aspects of the alliance model by using a data set that contains over 430 yellow ware sites throughout areas of NE Arizona. This pottery is found on the full range of site types and sizes, rather than simply at the large sites (i.e., >50 rooms) that the alliance model assumes. Within the core production area, Jeddito Yellow Ware is not characterized by restricted access to such pottery: most (89%) yellow ware sites have two rooms or less. We argue that the distribution of Jeddito Yellow Ware in our study area can be understood in the context of inter-community exchange and community based craft specialization, rather than through elite-controlled ceramic exchange networks.

Ceramic Manufacture, Productive Specialization, and the Early Classic Period in Arizona's Tonto Basin

Compositional analysis supports a model of multiple ceramic production modes during the Miami and Roosevelt phases of the early Classic period (ca. A.D. 1150-1350) in the Tonto Basin of central Arizona. We interpret temper compositional patterning to suggest that potters in most villages made some of their plain wares and red wares. In one area of the lower Tonto Basin, we believe that potters in many villages made some of their own unslipped corrugated wares. Data described in this study also suggest that specialists manufactured certain wares in particular settlements throughout the basin. Compositional homogeneity in some red wares and most slipped corrugated wares (Salado Red, Salado White-on-red) suggests that they were the objects of specialized production. Patterning in the compositional data also suggests the possibility that some Tonto Basin settlements specialized in the production of plain wares and unslipped corrugated wares, although potters also produced these two wares at the local level.

The Transition to History in Southeast Asia: An Introduction

Studies of the transition from prehistory to history in Southeast Asia have traditionally relied primarily on documentary sources, which tend to emphasize foreign influences, rather than on the archaeological record, which suggests a series of indigenous developments. The papers in this journal issue and the next discuss strategies for using both documentary and archaeological evidence to study the transition to history and the emergence of early states in the region. These papers investigate how political units were structured and integrated in Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and South China, and illustrate how historical and archaeological data can cross-check each other to inform on Southeast Asian sociopolitical and economic developments during the early historic period.